OAKLAND — Tim Wilhelm was working in his home office when he heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots, followed by the cry of his Shar-Pei puppy, Molly.

“There was no mistaking that was a gunshot and there was no mistake that it was our dog yelping,” he said.

Confused and terrified, he ran to his toddler son’s room to check on him. Finding the boy safe, Wilhelm then looked out the window and saw Molly writhing on the ground, suffering from two gunshot wounds.

He called police.

It was 6 p.m. Jan. 21. Molly had been let outside just a short time before to “do her business,” Wilhelm said.

Instead, she was shot in the spine and left for dead by a stranger walking by the Wilhelm home at the corner of Cole Street and Brookdale Avenue in the city’s Maxwell Park neighborhood. Wilhelm took Molly to the veterinarian, and she was put to sleep.

“I’ve been here 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this before,” said Oakland police Sgt. Donald Williams, who is searching for Molly’s killer. “It just seems as if someone was intent on doing harm to the animal for no apparent reason.”

Molly was a year-old Shar-Pei mix adopted from a rescue service. She was a magnet for people in the neighborhood, drawing passers-by to the Wilhelms’ low backyard fence.

The caramel-colored mutt had never had a problem with anyone. She was not a barker. She was not a biter. She did like to jump high near the fence to welcome people as they walked by, but “the worst she could do to you was lick you,” Wilhelm said.

Maxwell Park residents, shocked by the random violence, sent the Wilhelms cards and stopped by to express sympathy.

Wilhelm can’t help but worry about the person walking around the neighborhood with a gun. That person could have killed a person, he said.

The shooter also concerns Williams.

“I have some ideas on who it is, and I am getting clues here and there,” he said.

In the meantime, the Wilhelms and Maxwell Park residents have organized a walk around the block in memory of Molly. It is planned for 9 a.m. Saturday. Soon, Wilhelm said, the family will post a $1,000 reward for information leading to the dog’s killer.

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